N.Y. lobsterman rescued at sea by Coast Guard crew from Connecticut authors a book

N.Y. lobsterman rescued at sea by New Haven Coast Guard crew authors book

By Anna Bisaro abisaro@newhavenregister.com @annabisaro on Twitter

Published 10:41 am, Tuesday, May 23, 2017

U.S. Coast Guard Rescue

Media: The Middletown Press

Johnny Aldridge survived the impossible — floating in the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of night after falling off a lobster boat.

A full account of the story from Aldridge and his partner, Anthony Sosinski, will hit bookstores today, and Aldridge said the feeling of seeing his story on paper is strange.

“Now that it’s coming out, it’s so surreal,” Aldridge said in a phone interview with the Register. “My life is an open book now.”

Aldridge, a lobster fishermen from Montauk, New York, fell overboard off his boat, the Anna Mary, in the middle of the night on July 24, 2013, while Sosinski slept below deck.

“A Speck in the Sea: A Story of Survival and Rescue” chronicles the 12 hours Aldridge spent warding off sharks and using his boots filled with air for floatation devices while Sosinski worked with the U.S. Coast Guard to find him.

The crew that saved Aldridge is stationed in New Haven, according to Kate Knapp, a representative from Roslan & Campion Public Relations. A video of the crew saving Aldridge from a helicopter was released in 2013.

Photo: Digital First Media

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

A Speck in the Sea: A Story of Survival and Rescue will be available for purchase on May 23. The book chronicles the 12 hours John Aldridge was overboard and alone in the Atlantic Ocean while his partner and the U.S. Coast Guard looked for him. less

A Speck in the Sea: A Story of Survival and Rescue will be available for purchase on May 23. The book chronicles the 12 hours John Aldridge was overboard and alone in the Atlantic Ocean while his partner and ... more

Photo: Digital First Media

N.Y. lobsterman rescued at sea by Coast Guard crew from Connecticut authors a book

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

The book hit the shelves, literally and online, today.

Aldridge and Sosinski co-authored the book and a movie about the event will be in production soon, Aldridge said.

“It was a pretty exciting experience,” Aldridge said of writing the book. “We’re fishermen, we’re not writers.”

The pair hired a ghost writer to help tell the story, he said, and their work together came to be sort of therapy sessions for both of them as they worked together to tell the story.

“It was pretty healing in a sense,” Aldridge said.

The story was first chronicled in the Sunday Magazine of the New York Times in January 2014, but Aldridge said the magazine piece couldn’t quite tell the whole story, and he hopes the book will give more of the whole picture of what happened that day for everyone involved in the rescue and the struggles of his family as they waited for news.

But, most of all, Aldridge said he hopes the book will show the power of positive thinking, because that’s what he said saved his life.

“You don’t know it exists until you need it,” Aldridge said of positive energy.

“I was in such dire straights and position with no hope of surviving,” he said.

“Basically, I turned every bit of negative energy I had… and I pushed it away and I turned it into a positive thought,” he said.